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My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

jackevansevo.github.io

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Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#171

Post by someplaceguy »

hilbert42 wrote: post #161

FYI, there's a somewhat related topic at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37630804 concerning the difficulties of editing text on a mobile under the heading Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem. As is my usual wont, I had a long rave about such matters but one of the points I raised that may interest those here was the lack of Bluetooth keyboards, especially the more portable types with good mechanical s…

Keychron also has many keyboards with Bluetooth + USB-C cable -- the ones with "Pro" in the name, I think. I am personally a fan of the "Q" or "Q Pro" series (because of the knob), but there are other lines.

I think all of them have hot-swappable keys and many of them even have hot-swappable mechanical switches, I think. In most of their keyboards, all the keys (and key combinations) are fully configurable at the hardware level as well.

I can vouch for the quality of the ones I have (Q3), but mine don't have Bluetooth so I don't know how well that works.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#172

Post by chongli »

EtienneK wrote: post #56

I was expecting to see 10s of keyboards as you'd see from most in r/MechanicalKeyboards and was disappointed to only find 5. Not an unhealthy relationship at all!

Yeah I don’t think any of these folks have that much of an issue. Compare with the people spending thousands or even millions of dollars on little rectangles of printed paperboard and locking them away inside little display cases!

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#173

Post by eYrKEC2 »

swah wrote: post #137
azemetre wrote: post #79

Nice to see the Noppoo Choc Mini! I had the same keyboard, got me through 5 years of starcraft 2 and another 5 years of brood war remastered. Had to retire it when I stopped playing starcraft and now use a kinesis advantage360 pro when working/programming. If you haven't used a split keyboard, I highly recommend it! It feels way more natural typing and less stressful on your wrists. I still use a kinesis freestyle 2…

I've been trying to buy a Kinesis for a few years now, but they always go for 200 USD used in Ebay.

They're very expensive for a keyboard.

However, for a device that I use 50 hours a week -- not so expensive.

If you're a software engineer, you probably use your car a lot less than your keyboard. You _probably_ spent north of $20k for your car and you use it for ~7 hours per week, max?

$350 is nothing for a primary tool of your trade.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#174

Post by rtkwe »

larperdoodle wrote: post #72
infecto wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you are doing of course. Cannot speak to the fashion side of it but my original motivator to move to a keypad less was to reduce the distance of the mouse to my typing space. I do not do any type of data entry and rarely type numbers with enough frequency to require it.

I type in a 2FA code a few times a day and that's enough to justify it for me. Really hate typing in numbers without one

Some of the fancier ones will have layers where you can turn part of they keyboard directly into a number pad if you're mostly typing just numbers. Best of both worlds.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#175

Post by ddanieltan »

grumblingdev wrote: post #112

FYI: You can put a low-profile mechanical keyboard on top of your MacBook built-in keyboard and it works great. I use the Keychron K1 Pro with Brown Gateron switches. It's an 80% (ten-key-less / TKL). I needed this one because I use the right shift key a lot and it has a full-size one whereas the 75% is shortened. You get used to the slightly different layout very quickly. You might swap back and forth a bit but when…

I've been very happy with my Keychron K3 pro so far. I'm quite surprised there aren't more options for low profile mechanical keyboards (besides Keychron and Nuphy) as I always though the portability of a keyboard as 1 of the most important features for modern day usage and commuting.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#176

Post by nkantar »

My experimentation largely ended when I got an ErgoDox EZ a few years ago. Ergonomic + ortholinear has been life changing, and it’s hard to go back, even for relatively short bursts on the built-in laptop keyboard itself.

I recently got an OLKB Planck to see if I like it enough to travel with it, as the ErgoDox is a bit hefty for that use case.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#177

Post by eYrKEC2 »

shermozle wrote: post #8

I've used the MS Natural keyboards for years. I'd love to move to a mechanical model but the sites selling keyboards are really confusing. What do I have to buy to get a functioning keyboard? A shell? Switches? Other stuff? I really don't know what I'm looking at. Anyone got a good entry point?

MS Natural Keyboards have the opposite shape of natural in the Z-axis. Your pinky and index fingers have to travel _more_ because the curve is a mirror of the curve of your hands.

Kinesis Advantage2 are the negative shape of your hands and the split lines up with your shoulder width. Love my Kinesis Advantage2.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#178

Post by hilbert42 »

someplaceguy wrote: post #171
hilbert42 wrote: post #161

FYI, there's a somewhat related topic at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37630804 concerning the difficulties of editing text on a mobile under the heading Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem. As is my usual wont, I had a long rave about such matters but one of the points I raised that may interest those here was the lack of Bluetooth keyboards, especially the more portable types with good mechanical s…

Keychron also has many keyboards with Bluetooth + USB-C cable -- the ones with "Pro" in the name, I think. I am personally a fan of the "Q" or "Q Pro" series (because of the knob), but there are other lines. I think all of them have hot-swappable keys and many of them even have hot-swappable mechanical switches, I think. In most of their keyboards, all the keys (and key combinations) are fully configurable at the har…

Ah, thanks for that. Just had a quick look at the site, seems I've much reading to do.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#179

Post by eYrKEC2 »

koromak wrote: post #92

I splurged and bought a 400$ keyboard. Its so stupid and I love it so much. It feels like a piece of heavy machinery. I'd say the mechanicalkeyboard crowd is a little more unhealthy. People in that world drop thousands a year on keyboards they'll use twice.

I've seen people drop $120k on a Ford Raptor truck and then never put a single load of lumber, bark, or dirt in the bed.

Re: My Unhealthy Relationship with Keyboards

#180

Post by tomduncalf »

Big fan of the MS Sculpt myself. I like the "MacBook-esque" low profile keys.

The only downsides are:

- I've had keycaps fall off after a couple of years and they're almost impossible to get back on (for me at least). The second time this happened I realised it had a 3 year warranty though, so got a replacement.

- It requires a dongle rather than Bluetooth, and if you lose the dongle, you're screwed, as they're paired in the factory and can't be reconfigured.

Are there any other similar keyboards worth considering? Must be wireless, low profile keys and split layout. The Logitech K860 looks alright but I don't need or want the numpad really (I like having my Magic Trackpad closer).

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